The story of WikiLeaks is fascinating; the telling of it in “The Fifth Estate” somewhat less so.

Bill Condon’s film traces the online organization from its roots inside Julian Assange’s curious head to the point when WikiLeaks, the New York Times, the Guardian of London and Der Spiegel in Germany published, simultaneously, war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. Along the way there were plenty of other leaks and lots of interpersonal drama, most of it stemming from Assange’s ego.

Pretty good stuff, as you can learn in “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” Alex Gibney’s entertaining take on the subject.

But Condon chooses to focus more on Assange, which is not a fatal flaw, because Benedict Cumberbatch plays him with an oddball intensity perfectly suitable to the subject. Yet instead of delving into the moral questions WikiLeaks asks by its very existence, Condon gives those a passing nod in a couple of weak subplots.

Instead, he focuses more on Assange and his relationship with Daniel Berg (Daniel Bruhl), the German computer whiz who would go from adoring fanboy to disillusioned cynic (and on whose memoir the script is partly based).

The obvious antecedent here is “The Social Network,” David Fincher’s brilliant film about Mark Zuckerberg and the disputed founding of Facebook. “The Fifth Estate” doesn’t match that film’s ambition or execution.

But Cumberbatch is great.

Assange would eventually be arrested on charges of sexual assault and is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The best bit of the movie is at the end, in a postscript set inside the embassy, when Assange (Cumberbatch, not the real one) discusses the idea of a WikiLeaks film.

And what of WikiLeaks? Some argue that it is a bold new development in free speech. Others — including governments of various nations, such as our own — argue that it is a dangerous dumping ground where everything is fair game to be published for the world to see. It’s a fascinating question, and an important one, and one that “The Fifth Estate” gives too little attention.